Black Group Condemns
Cartoonist for Racist Strip About Condoleezza Rice

Project 21 Asks Civil Rights
Community to Join in Call to Hold Cartoonist to the Same Standard
to Which It Holds Rush Limbaugh

Because of the racially-insensitive
content of a recent cartoon, members of the African-American
leadership network Project 21 are asking Universal Press Syndicate
to cease the distribution of comics drawn by Ted Rall. Project
21 also is challenging several other civil rights-oriented groups
to join in the demand.

A July 1 comic by Rall suggests
"appropriate punishments for deposed Bushists" that
parodies alleged treatment of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib
prison. The panel featuring Bush Administration national security
advisor Condoleezza Rice has her saying "I was Bush's beard!
His house nigga. His..." She is interrupted by a character
wearing a shirt reading "You're not white, stupid"
who says, "Now hand over your hair straightener."

"Is it OK for Ted Rall
to use such vile language because he's using it against a black
conservative?" asks Project 21 member Michael King. "I'm
beside myself with anger over this comic."

Project 21 is asking Universal
Press Syndicate, the distributor of Rall's comics, to immediately
terminate their relationship with him. Project 21 is also asking
the NAACP, the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ)
and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition to make similar demands based
on their past involvement in pressuring ESPN to fire radio talk
show host Rush Limbaugh in 2003.

Last year, in his capacity
as a football commentator for ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown,"
Limbaugh criticized the performance of Philadelphia Eagle's quarterback
Donovan McNabb, saying, "The media has been very desirous
that a black quarterback do well." Afterwards, NAACP president
and CEO Kweisi Mfume called Limbaugh's comments "bigoted
and arrogant" and called for his removal. The NABJ demanded
ESPN "separate itself" from Limbaugh. Rainbow/PUSH
Coalition president Jesse Jackson called the remarks "not
accurate and... insulting." Limbaugh later resigned.

"From radical poet Amiri
Baraka to singer Harry Belafonte and now cartoonist Ted Rall,
too many people feel they have free rein to insult the dignity
of Condoleezza Rice and have no problem injecting race into that
abuse," adds King. "It's time for the civil rights
establishment to stop allowing this assault on an accomplished
black woman or they put their credibility at risk."